Backsliding is not Falling Back into Sin

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3: 15, 16)

We know about Uzziah. Yet many who think they know about him only know about what happened when he died.

Yet how many know that for the most part he was a godly king?

What then happened?

We are told that he became proud. And that was his downfall because due to it he thought as the sovereign he could as well do some priestly duties.

He did not fall into immorality or other vile vices as we think of backsliding.

What am I saying?

The reality of backsliding is the cooling down of one’s passion for Christ. It is a relaxing of a believer from the rigours of his past soldenness to the causes he held very dear. It is a lethargy towards disciplines he pursued relentlessly in the past. It is a logical explanation for one’s lack of fire for the things of God. It is a looking down of people pursuing God with your past passion.

I can be doing everything right. My spiritual CV might be overflowing with all the right qualifications for ministry. My ministry output might be recognised the world over for its impact.

But my heart may have cooled off from my love for Christ and what He stands for.

I might easily explain it as maturity but the reality is that I have lost my passion for the things of God.

I am simply using the momentum I created when my heart was afire. But I have no new energy to propel me higher.

David didn’t backslide when he slept with Bathsheba.

That sin was the fruit of his backsliding.

The clearest indicator of his backsliding was staying home in the season kings went out to war. And I believe even that was a symptom as the backsliding must have started much earlier.

Yet I think Hezekiah gives us the clearest of this

Remember he was a very good and godly king.

Then he was told that the time of his death had come.

That is when we see his backslidden state, not his backsliding.

I deserve better, is what he was telling God

He was propelling his life using his past godliness and using it to bargain with God.

Grace has slipped away.

It is no wonder that we see pride consuming him once his bargain bears fruit.

Yet the clearest evidence of his backsliding can be seen in the fruit of his backslidden state.

He raised Manasseh in that state.

No where in the Bible do we see Hezekiah falling into sin.

His life went on as it had been before. Only his heart had thawed against God.

And that is what Manasseh caught since our children will catch our spirit instead of our actions and words.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. (Revelation 2:4)

You read that context of this verse and will not fail to see the ‘accolades’ Jesus heaped on the church in Ephesus.

They were doing everything right. They were defending the doctrine very nicely. Their outward was perfect.

But their heart had lost its fire.

And that to God was falling.

We love saying God sees the heart. Only that we do not really behave or run with that confession.

Why do I say that?

There are things we do in secret that we will be ashamed of if people knew that we do them. There are sites we visit on the net that we would be ashamed of if everybody knew we visit them. There are thoughts and attitudes we maintain and we know they are not right because nobody can access our thoughts or hearts.

Doing ministry because we must do it is an indicator of a backslidden state. Serving God because my support comes from that is also an indicator.

In short, doing all the right things is not any indicator that God is pleased with what I am doing because He sees the heart, the source and motivation of everything I do or think.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I had to fix those verses somewhere.

And it is because they clearly exemplify what I have been saying.

One thing I love with Paul was his motivation

For the love of Christ constraineth us; (2Corinthians 5:14a)

His passion for Christ was unfazed by nothing until he was martyred.

How backslidden are you?

New, Not Improved Creation

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2Corinthians 5:17)

I have some goats.

Incidentally, they have been opening my eyes to a lot of scripture understanding as I have been taking care of them.

I want us to look at one aspect, the difference between them and sheep. And it came alive as I was herding those few goats.

I never realised how different goats are from sheep.

Did you realise that goats do not eat grass?

You see, goats are browsers and not grazers like sheep and cows.

They therefore feed on shrubbery and eat grass when there is nothing better. And even then they prefer the flowery part of the grass when it is there.

This single fact explains so much about the goat’s behaviour.

Due to the fact that a goat samples everything it comes across to be able to get the nutrition it requires, it is very difficult for it to be constrained to a pasture or shepherd.

Goats nit-pick their food, not eat mouthfuls at any time.

They also must verify what they eat through their noses. I think it is not wrong to call them nosy.

When we were evicted from our father’s land because he was in the Mau Mau, a number of our sheep died after consuming a certain plant where we moved.

Yet I never saw the same with goats. And now that I am taking care of them can understand why.

Goats sniff everything before consuming it, however succulent it may appear.

Goats are suspicious by nature. And they know they are in the wrong always. Shout and a goat must look at you and stop whatever it is doing. It is not the same with sheep and cows which will stop only when they are moving.

Why all these stories? I know someone is wondering.

Christ did not come to make us better goats. He came to transform us from goats to sheep.

There is no way you can improve a goat to even remotely be like a sheep. They are DIFFERENT, completely different species.

A sheep simply is. A goat is aiming at something, especially something beyond its reach since that is where the most succulent fare is.

Place food on the ground and a goat will eat very little and trample the rest. Place the same in a place they can barely reach and they will eat it to the last bit without wastage

A goat is always looking for better pasture, never content with what it has. A goat is restless. However much it has eaten, it will behave as if it is starved if it sees something resembling food.

To a sheep, a shepherd is the guide since sheep trust him. To the goat, the shepherd is the limiter.

You take that to the spiritual and you realise what Christ came to do.

Adamic nature is goatish. New life in Christ is sheepish.

Salvation is therefore the transformation from one nature to another, not improvement of the goatish nature to make it sheepish.

And this explains some things people complain about.

Like why do ministers kids become children of Belial? Why do missionary kids hate mission work?

You see, growing among sheep may make a goat behave like a sheep and think that it is a sheep.

Once you remove them from the environment, their true nature manifests and they will start behaving who they are.

A minister’s kid is as goatish as the kid raised in a brothel. It is the environment that constrains him from releasing that goatish nature.

It means that a minister’s child must encounter Christ just as the one in the brothel for them to become sheep, God’s sheep.

The reason we hear of ministers behaving badly is many times because they did not give Christ their nature to transform. They may have subscribed to some dogmas and of course entered into an environment that made them think they were sheep.

Then they saw an exposed thigh or breast and their goatish nature exploded. Then they saw an opportunity for easy cash and their goatish nature exploded.

Growing and living with sheep is no insurance against goatishness.

Only Christ’s transformational salvation can. And it does so by replacing the goatish nature with a sheepish one.

This makes it possible for the former goat to be content with following the shepherd and listening to Him. It makes it possible for the former rebel to relax in the provision of the Shepherd.

Let me give an application.

A goat reads the Bible to look for excuses to do what they want.

When you hear a believer asking where in the Bible polygamy or smoking is condemned, please know that you are dealing with a goat since a goat is never satisfied with boundaries.

The drive for better prospects, greener pastures, greater and bigger things is many times an indicator for a goat. Discontent is the driving force in goats whereas rest is the preserve of sheep.

Goats fear the rod. It will jump over any obstacle to escape punishment.

Incidentally it is not only punishment. Hold a stick and a goat will run away.

If you hear someone who got saved some time ago saying that they got saved to escape hell, I think it is a clear indicator that their goatish nature still reigns. They came to escape hell but didn’t take the nature that escape required.

It is the same with the person who is sexually pure because they are scared of the consequences or are honest for fear of being caught.

The reality is that their good is really a cover for their goatish nature. Or it is their argument of being sheep.

A sheep does not fear the rod since it follows the shepherd.

Look at our preaching.

Give so that this or the other happens or does not happen.

That is fare for goats.

Sheep will give out of their love and trust in their shepherd. They do not give to attract a reward or avoid punishment.

Or those people who attend and get involved in church so that they can get a church burial or access church goodies. These are goats and the ones who preach such nonsense are also goats.

Heaven and hell, real as they are, are not the primary reasons Christ calls us to Himself.

God did not create man to escape hell.

He created man to have fellowship with Him.

It is the goatish nature activated by the fall that brought heaven and hell in the picture. But it did not make them the focus of God’s redemptive agenda.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

Keeping up with the joneses is also the evidence of a goat nature.

Give goats each their own pasture and they will all be running at each other’s pile. It will bite here and run off to bite at the other pile the whole day.

Tether a goat and the grass will be eaten at the extremities since a goat thinks that what is unreachable is better than what is easily available.

We will look at other aspects of this topic.

Are you a sheep or goat?

 

Saltless Salt

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (Matthew 5:13)

There is a contextual element in revelation.

We will many times fail to understand scriptures because we seek to interpret in our context, leaving many gaps in our understanding.

The verse above has bothered me for as long as I have read or heard it taught.

How does salt lose its saltiness?

I have never even heard of a situation where salt can lose its savour.

You see, we are in the age of refined salt. Even for those who encounter unprocessed, it is from the sea and so is almost pure.

A pastor the other day in preaching gave me the context of the verse. And this solved my life long dilemma of sorts.

People far from the sea in the past had no easy way to get salt.

Let me get us closer home.

Heard of salt pans?

These are places where the soil is very salty. Animals wild and domestic will flock there to lick that saltiness.

But people do not lick salt. They prepare and preserve food with it.

What did they do to get salt from that salty ground?

They would take chunks of the same and soak it in water. Then they would strain it probably by some cloth and the water coming out would be salty for their use.

They would repeat the same whenever they needed salt.

But eventually the saltiness would disappear as the salt would be exhausted.

That is the context of our verse.

It thus means that salt does not lose its saltiness through a chemical reaction like exposure to the elements.

Salt loses its saltiness by being used.

In short salt loses its savour through overuse.

That is what Christ was talking about. And that is what I want us to look at.

We do not lose our saltiness by sinning since sinning simply indicates that we really were not salt in the first place. We do not have the right makeup to be salt.

And this because salt is not something we display but something whose sweetness or impact we experience.

We lose our saltiness by stretching our saltiness without replenishing the same.

You see, we are not naturally salt. God through Christ has given us that nature.

And since that is not a chemical change, we must continually be connected to our source to continue being salt.

Though in salvation we become new creation, it is a creation that must be feeding on the source to remain new.

That is why Christ talked about us being branches of the vine that is Him.

We must be feeding on Him for us to effectively feed others

In short, we must be getting our saltiness from Him.

We lose our saltiness when we are more interested in releasing the salt we have than accessing the salt we receive from Christ since we will be strained saltless.

It is when we are drained of our saltiness that our proclivity to sin gains the ground.

In simple terms, it is when we continue ministering without the increase of our expansion of the closet that we gradually lose our saltiness.

Then we become like salt without its savour as Jesus said.

Then we become useless to the kingdom, totally useless.

Do not be shocked when you see these verses as you will always see when I teach.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 22, 23)

I dare say that they ministered without releasing adequate salt, probably because their level of salt intake was overtaken by the level of their salt output. They therefore gave until they had no salt left.

Then sadly, due to the accolades or rewards their new ‘saltiness’ continued attracting, they did not think it mattered whether they were connected to the source

They therefore continued to thrive without the source of their salt, eventually giving out a completely different savour.

God does not expect us to create salt. He does not expect us to produce salt from ourselves.

He simply wants us to allow Him to saturate His salt in us so that we can produce it when we are squeezed or strained[GM1] .

Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. (Mark 9:50)

 

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 [GM1] 

It is Radical or It is not Obedience

And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. (Judges 2: 2, 3)

Have you realised that just about enough and almost enough is not enough?

Do you realise that any command from God has to be carried out to its conclusion or it is not obedience?

That is what I want us to look at today.

Why must it have to be extreme to be acceptable?

A small slip has the capacity to water down the almost complete obedience.

Israel was commanded to clear Canaan of her inhabitants as a condition to their settling in the land.

But it was not so straightforward to them.

You see, some had superior weapons (iron chariots) while others were in fortified abodes.

What was wrong with slowly weakening them before dealing with them? I am sure many opined thus.

They were therefore unable (unwilling?) to go the whole hog as far as dispossessing the occupiers of the Promised Land was concerned.

What then happens?

The abhorred will neighbour the blessed. To the rebellious (supposedly with their heart at the right place) start fetching water with the condemned from the same wells. They start sharing the same bushes for wood. They start sharing the same grazing fields with their animals.

Of course they will start talking since they are social beings.

This will then lead to them sharing more than things.

They will share in culture. They will share in language. They will share in relationships and marriage. Ultimately, they will share in worship.

This will result in the blessed being condemned as a result of those associations.

That comes out clearly when we read the book of Judges.

All because of an innocent oversight, a little slip.

Or was it?

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them. (Numbers 33: 51 – 56)

The command was clear, very clear.

Arguing about the implementation of the same was the problem. Explaining the reluctance or difficulty of ‘literal’ obedience was the reason the Canaanite was left, albeit in small numbers.

But that was as against the commandment as would have been had they completely ignored the commandment.

Would there be a difference between drinking a sip of poison and swallowing a whole jug of the same?

That is how God sees it.

There are no different levels of obedience. It is complete or it is disobedience.

The world has tried to make us dread the word radical. Yet in the sphere of obedience that is the only obedience God recognises.

And I have explained why partial obedience is so intolerable to God because He sees where it all heads to.

The consequences of partial obedience are probably more destructive that outright disobedience.

Do you realise that there was grace for Manasseh and none for Saul, for example?

Manasseh was lost, completely so. But Saul was on the borderline and not ‘exactly’ disobedient.

Don’t you realise he waited, and he killed the Amalekites? Are there no marks for trying?

With God there aren’t.

What am I aiming at?

Do we debate and rationalise what the Bible says? Do we look for explanations when we are looking to be on the right side of the Good Book?

Do we treat God’s commandments as suggestions as even some modern Bibles have been translated to say?

Do we trust God so completely that we will walk on our heads if He says so?

Caleb walked for forty years with the rebellious Israelites, but his case was different because his response to the spying mission was as radical as God required.

No wonder forty-five years later he was as strong as he had been after spying while all his peers had been dead and buried long before then. He could even ask for permission, not support, to tackle the giants that were the reason for the forty years punishment.

I hope you get me.

As usual I will place these verses I always quote.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 – 23)

I hope you realise that they are not going to hell for not doing. They are going because they did not do exactly what they had been commanded.

Impactful Teaching

And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. (John 7: 15, 16)

Why was Jesus’ teaching so powerful?

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Matthew 7: 28, 29)

I was thinking about what makes some preachers impactful and others, well, just preachers, and entertainers, and motivators.

Why does one preacher who looks and sounds boring draw more believers to desire and commit to grow while another with the gift of the garb not have much impact.

Why does a preacher who is so rough and ‘ignorant’ in his delivery make people flock to the cross in repentance while the really entertaining has crowds shouting, I receive and uncountable Amens yet still wallowing in sin?

What was the difference between Jesus and the religious leaders of His time?

What gave His teaching authority that the others did not have?

I dare say that that reason is the same between impactful preachers and the rest.

It has to do with agenda.

You see, Jesus had no agenda of His own. He did what He saw His Father doing. He said what He heard His Father saying.

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. (John 7:16)

He was submitted to the One who had sent Him.

And we will be like Him if we surrendered our everything to the One who has called us.

Our lack of impact stems from our agenda.

You see, only God’s agenda releases the power inherent in His nature.

Though we may be able to conjure His power at one time or the other for our purpose, we really will be unable to have all His powerful revelation accompanying our ministry if we are not sold out to His agenda.

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9)

We must give him the prominence He deserves, no, possesses, if we must have Him taking prominence in our ministrations.

What I am saying is that our agenda must be swallowed into His COMPLETELY for Him to give our agenda the power Christ possessed.

Then our wisdom will be the overflow of His. Our anointing will be flowing from His.

No wonder then that people will think of us as very educated though they will be wondering where we got that much education since they did not see us receiving letters.

I have encountered people who taught themselves to read just because they had to read the Bible.

You hear their preaching and are amazed at their grasp of the word, and many other issues since God’s knowledge’s purpose is to make a sense of all things since He is the creator of everything. His revelation is therefore contextual to all of life and nature.

In short, I am saying that the person sold out to God’s agenda will reach the heart a person most adrift with psychological, social and current affairs knowledge won’t.

God created the heart. All these other things defiled and corrupted that heart and so have no capacity to offer any solution to the same.

That is the impact I am talking about.

His agenda is not complicated since His revelation is not complicated.

He has hidden His revelation in His word; the same word that contains the revelation of who He is.

Once we elevate His word, we will then humbly allow it to guide us into a right relationship with Him.

Then we will know to clearly submit to His will (agenda).

This will of course give Him leeway to release His impact through us.

If you think this is easy because it is simple, try doing it. You will be amazed at the kind of power your life will be releasing the more you surrender your will into His.

Lord, Lord

To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:3)

I want us to look at something I read a politician saying concerning another one. That someone should stop behaving like a deputy Jesus.

What was the beef, if we may call it that?

The said person was carrying a Bible to church and quoting verses.

If that is a crime, some of us probably should probably be rotting in their jails since that has described some of us (like me) for the longest time (me for close to four decades).

I have severally dispensed the do not judge error on my blog by saying equivocally that the Bible was written to guide us to judge.

It therefore gives us the guidelines for the same since we are naturally very selfish in our judgment if left to ourselves.

Do you realise that there is no place for the person who does not say, Lord, Lord, in that favourite verse?

The ones not saying Lord, Lord are outside, already condemned.

The judgment the passage is talking about is of believers, those not ashamed of calling Christ Lord openly.

There is no place for secret admirers and practitioners.

Incidentally, even the verses people quote about looking for fruit is on the same plane. It is the confessors who are being addressed. We are being asked to look beyond the words to the fruit, not replace the words with the fruit.

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)

Nobody called them deputy devil when they were caught in the bush with a ‘celibate’ man of the cloth. Nobody called them deputy Satan when they proudly called themselves witchdoctor.

Why should they be so offended when somebody openly confesses his faith?

Let me go to another passage before winding up this discourse.

Do you also realise that in Matthew 25 Christ was also addressing His people? There was no place for outsiders.

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? (1Corinthians 5: 11, 12)

What am I saying?

Please politician, do not try to use the Bible you do not believe in to bash those who believe in it.

2010 is not that long ago. We remember the insults the church endured as we sought to make sense of those agendas you pushed in that constitution you are now fighting to change. You openly hated and poured scorn on the church at every forum you got.

Not so long ago you were so offended by someone going to church. Remember not so long ago pouring cold water on someone being prayed for. And recently promising to close small churches.

You have killed the faith of those around you that were known for the same before.

Now that you need votes from the church you want to behave as if you changed. Yet change is occasioned by repentance. And it must be as public as those insults were.

Let me repeat.

No one who does not say Lord, Lord is being addressed in those passages you are quoting. And you have no business judging people in a house you do not belong.

Join the house first by repenting and accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour and those verses will apply to you as well.

Otherwise, look for other ways to search for votes.

Do not pretend to love the church by taking handouts to bribe members to vote for you. That for me is worse hypocrisy because you are pretending to be part of a house you do not belong.

Yet you can belong. John 3: 16 can still apply to you.

Still on politics, are our politicians living in Kenya?

Why is none of them raising an uproar on the ballooning food prices.

Let me go a few years ago at a season like this.

One side was screaming that food was becoming too expensive because it was, though nowhere near where it is today. And it was said that some leaders were hoarding maize to make a kill.

Then the government stepped in (because the big man was looking for votes also) and in a very short time the price of unga became lower than the place it rose from.

Does it mean that since the big man is not on the ballot Kenya and Kenyans can starve to death? Was his job completed when he won? Has his retirement already commenced?

Should he then not just resign and leave us without a leader instead of pretending to be one?

A father goes without food so that his children can eat. What kind of leader looks for excuses instead of food for his people?

This is the shame that I want addressed by the people looking for political positions.

Otherwise, they also have no business asking for votes, because they are not worth any of those votes.

The sycophants can start bashing me now. Karibu.

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. (Proverbs 21:13)

Why Sweat is Prohibited in Worship

They … shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat. (Ezekiel 44: 18b)

One exciting thing about obedience is that it precedes revelation.

It is only when we obey without asking why that we can understand why.

Obedience is the greatest proof that we trust God. It is the greatest evidence that we have faith in what we have heard or read God is.

We are simply saying that we will leap in the dark because we are trusting the one issuing the order.

That pleases God.

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2Chronicles 16: 9a)

Blind obedience is what people call obedience without reason. Yet that is the only obedience there is because if I must always know why I should obey it would then stop being obedience.

What does this have to do with sweat and worship? I know someone is asking.

For years, I have been wondering why a priest was not expected to sweat yet his ministry revolved around fire and smoke.

Why did God give the specifics, to the smallest detail, of their attire to ensure that they do not sweat amidst all that heat?

But I shared what God wanted anyway, the latest being a post ‘Worship and Sweat’ where I looked at this topic in some depth.

I annoy believers because I insist on teaching the scriptures as they are without seeking to shade them with culture or man-made doctrine, or even making them logical or explainable.

Many times (I would like it to be all times) my arguments are based only on what God in His word says and not what even I think He says.

It therefore means that I rarely have any logical explanation for what the Bible says unless I have gone through some lesson from God.

This is where I have been at concerning this verse.

Sweat is wrong in worship, period. It has nothing to do with how you feel or even do.

I do not have to understand why because I know God is never trivial with any of His commands. God must have His reasons. And those reasons are the only reasons worth following.

Incidentally we are not the only ones to struggle with understanding God’s commands. Remember this verse?

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. (Psalm 73: 16, 17)

Revelation follows obedience.

As with the psalmist, God may eventually explain why, though for the obedient that is not essential to their obedience.

This is what I want to get to here.

Remember the curse on Adam?

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Genesis 3:19)

Sweat is the evidence of our effort. Sweat indicates hard work, labour.

Sweat and rest are two opposite sides of the coin called life.

That is where I want us to go.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11: 28 – 30)

Christ came to give us rest.

Though He came with a yoke for us, it was a restful yoke. Though He also placed a burden on us, it was light.

It goes without say that Christ replaced our burden with rest, our effort with an enjoyable yoke.

I want us to remember that the Levites were forbidden from work. They were even forbidden from lands since God became their source.

Their job became to connect Israel to God. Knowing God’s will and translating it to Israel became their only job.

Surely God cannot remove someone from labour if He was intending to replace it with more labour.

That is why sweat was removed from God’s service since it would indicate that God was taking them from labouring for their needs to labouring for Him.

I am sure this also speaks about ministry.

Ministry should be rest from labour, not transfer from one type of labour to another. It is not the change from secular labour to spiritual one. It is not from sweating to put food on the table my own way and sweating to put food on the table using spiritual methods.

When ministry is the transfer from one source of sweat to another, it is impossible for it to be Christ’s yoke.

Back to sweat.

Imagine a priest burning all that fat and meat in the process of his priestly ministration yet he was not allowed to sweat!

Yet we think it is the height of spiritual maturity and impact when we must have heavy handkerchiefs when we preach to wipe away rivers of sweat from our brows. We will even applaud ‘worshippers’ who must take constant breaks due to the exertion their ministration requires.

Whose work is it? Who is being ministered to there?

Jesus did not sweat blood because of His exertion. It was due to the travail of His heart.

When worship produces sweat, it goes contrary to God’s expectation.

God gives rest. Worship should produce rest.

There is a burden and there is a yoke. But they are restful if they are placed there by Christ.

Allow me to give some observations.

Assuming worship is only song, which it is not, do you realise that sweat is the evidence of fatigue?

This means that your body (which is the tent hosting the spirit) is crying for rest.

Have you realised that congregations that have sweaty worship sleep through sermons? That is why many resort to introducing a lot of noisy interjections to the sermon to at least maintain a semblance of wakefulness.

From shout amens to the amens being done by noisy instruments to a lot of movement and dramatics from the preacher there will literally be no quiet moment during the preaching.

Yet that can be eliminated by disallowing sweat in worship.

Before ‘worship’ was introduced in church not so long ago, we used to sing hymns several times in a worship (yes, worship) service. Very, very rarely would we have anybody sleeping through a sermon, however ‘boring’ it was. And preachers were not performers and dramatists.

Incidentally, rarely would you have two faced performers, an angel in church and the devil outside, since the Gospel would have enough time and chance to penetrate to the soul and spirit.

Do you remember Elijah? He was ordered to eat and rest after issuing prophecy for the devastating famine. And he was ordered to eat and sleep after battling the false prophets and was threatened with death.

Again, remember when God wanted to issue new orders for him. God’s voice was not in the drama and noise. It was in stillness.

David understood worship. He ensured stillness under whatever circumstances. But he had to be intentional. Saul couldn’t listen in the noise.

Noise distracts. And noise and sweat are relatives.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

Nobody sweats in stillness.

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. (Isaiah 30:15)

And nobody can receive power from on high through their sweat.

Sweat is the product of our effort, the antithesis of the rest that is produced by resting in God and His worship.

Before you trash what I am writing here, please go to God in prayer and ask Him to verify that what I am writing is the [lain teaching of scripture

Else you will continue vomiting the unproductive and unscriptural doctrines and practices you have inherited from men.

After that, search the scriptures. Or probably that is where you should start.

Look for sweat in worship from the whole Bible and then let us talk.

I am not writing this because it is comfortable. I am writing against much of what I have held as Gospel truth almost all my life.

My scriptural intake confronted my doctrine and its practice and I had to make a decision which to trumpet.

That is where I would like you to get to.